Stand on Principle or Stand Aside

I have been told by several people in our movement that we are going to have to support Republican candidates in elections because if we support a third party or independant candidate we will split the conservative vote and hand the election to the Democrat. I understand this logic. It may very well be true but should we not vote our principles nonetheless? What about the 8 House Republicans that voted for Cap and Trade? Should we not find another candidate in those races to support? Why would we reward those RINOs for voting against our values and principles?

It may be painful and it may be tough for people to do something they have never done before; this is the only way to really make the changes to the Congress in general and the GOP specificly that are needed to save our country. If we just vote for the R because we don’t want the D to win what reason to they have to vote the way we want them to in the future? How do we hold them accountable when they know we will vote for them because they are the “lesser of two evils”?

I say we stop voting for the lesser of two evils and vote for people with our values and principles regardless of party. We cannot just vote for the R because they are part of the problem. For 6 years they had a majority in Congress and we let them get away with spending a fortune and adding billions to the debt. They doubled the size of the Education Department, they created a whole new entitlement with Medicare part D (prescription drugs) and we sat back and watched as they created a brand new massive department of the government called “Homeland Security”; isn’t the Defence Department for securing the homeland?

We also said nothing while they infringed upon our civil liberties in the name of protecting us. They passed a law creating, for the first time in our history, a national ID card. This was called the Real ID Act of 2005. This national ID card is not only a violation of the 10th Amendment, but it is also a violation of the 4th Amendment. It created a massive government database to secure all kinds of private information about you. The Real ID Act was such a violation of the Constitution that Governors Jindal (LA), Sanford (SC), and Palin (AK) all signed laws saying that their states would not comply with the Real ID Act. So many states followed their lead that the program is dead and will no longer take effect, but we the people hardly noticed.

We also allowed them to pass the Patriot Act, which Judge Napolitano of FOX News says was unconstitutional. Some provisions of the Patriot Act allow the Executive Branch the power to: deem American citizens a terrorist threat and suspend their Constitutional rights! It also allowed the government the power to tap your phone without a warrent and do what they called “sneak and peek” searches of your home,again without a warrent, without ever letting you know they were there. Worst of all is the so called “lonewolf” provision in which the government can investigate you without a warrent, tap your phone calls, see what books you have checked out of the library, read your email, see what websites you have been going to et al, even if you have NO connection to a terrorist group or a foreign government. All Obama needs to do is say that he thinks you are a threat to the homeland and the Justice Department can do all the things mentioned above without any indication that you are indeed a terrorist. Do you think this may happen to some of us in the Tea Party movement?

The Republicans did a lot of bad things when they had control of both houses of Congress. We should not reward them for this. We should vote for Republicans that support our limited government principles and respect the Constitution. If, however, we don’t have a Republican that has our values we should support another candidate in that race that does without regard to their party. We must vote our principles not our party and we mustn’t let anyone tell us that we are “throwing our vote away” by voting for an independant. We are voting our principles, that doesn’t seem like a wasted vote to me.

A Depressing Sight

We passed by South of the Border a few minutes ago and we stopped to take some pictures. It was like a ghost town. Very depressing. Obama says that we are in a recovery, you wouldn’t know it from looking at South of the Border.

I couldn’t help but think about all the business owners and employees that are struggling through this economy while the president runs around talking about how great the economy is doing. Crazy.

Meanwhile, we are driving thru NC and it is beautiful. Tom T is getting tired but we are almost there. We are having such a great time. We have not seen any other cars heading up to DC, that we could tell anyway. I know that a car from Orlando is about an hour behind us and there are some folks on Twitter that are on I-95.

Kelsey is in the back doing a crossword while Tom and I listen to Rush and chain smoke.

Going Strong in SC

We crossed into South Carolina a few minutes ago. We are all going strong. Kelsey may be fading a little bit but we are drinking plenty of Mt. Dew and we are so excited to see everyone in DC this weekend. Driving along listening to Glenn Beck.

The weather and traffic have gone in our favor thus far. We have yet to see another car decorated or a bus headed to DC. I hope we bump into some people headed our way. Dave from Orlando is about an hour behind us and we are keeping in touch via SMS. Tom T just got some nasty coffee from a gas station off I-95. He is convinced that they used water from the toilet. It must be pretty bad. Ha ha!!! We have seen a few Piggly Wiggly trucks on the road today. It cracks me up.

We have also seen a lot of cops on the road but thankfully none of them have been looking for rightwing extremists.

More soon!

Passing thru Jacksonville

We are 2 hours into our road trip and we just hit the city limits of Jacksonville. We are having a blast! Tom T rocks, I always thought so but we are bonding quite a bit. Tom T is super smart; we are having a great conversation about life, politics and everything that comes up.

This could be the best part of this whole thing; the people I have met in this movement. I am usually the youngest
person around when we are planning tea parties or protests but I have bonded with so many cool people that I have become super close with. I wouldn’t change that for the world. People like Tom T, Linda, Babs and so many others that are too many to name.

We are just passing through downtown Jacksonville. It’s a very nondescript skyline. Not like Orlando Orlando may be a smaller city but our skyline is beautiful in my opinion. The Bank of America building is such a cool building and is a very distinct building.

Enough about Jacksonville for now. Georgia here we come. See you in DC!!!

Th

The road trip begins

It is 4:19am and Tom T from ResistNet just picked Kelsey and me up to begin the ride to the 9-12 march in DC. It is going to be a long ride but we are so excited that I don’t
think it will be so bad. We just got on I-4 and we are about to pass downtown Orlando.

I didn’t sleep last night, didn’t even try. I was way too excited. It reminded me of when I was a little kid and it was Christmas Eve and no matter how hard I would try I just couldn’t sleep. It is so nice that conservatives are finally getting active. Who would have thought back on February 27th when we had the first round of Tea Parties nationwide that 7 months later we would be taking over the Capitolfor a day??? This is what is going to make a difference; getting conservatives active and keepingit going till 2010 and 2012 so we can take our country back.

I will be posting short blogs most of the road trip. Please excuse any grammar or spelling errors as I am writing in the car on my phone. Look out DC the extremists are comming!!!!!

Viva la revolucion!

Blogo’s book

From the AP

CHICAGO (AP) – Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says in a new book that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel wanted his help in arranging to leave the Obama administration after two years to reclaim his seat in Congress.

Blagojevich writes in “The Governor” that Emanuel spoke with him about whether it was possible to appoint a “placeholder” to the congressional seat Emanuel was giving up so that he could win back the seat in 2010 and continue his efforts to become speaker some day.

“As we have done for many months, we will continue to decline comment,” Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg said in an e-mail Monday.

Blagojevich also admits that he wanted something in exchange for appointing President Barack Obama’s replacement in the Senate, but it wasn’t the deal described in federal corruption charges against him.

The Chicago Democrat says that the night before his arrest in December, he had launched a plan to appoint Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the Senate seat because he hoped to cut a deal on pet projects with her father, powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

That plan was ruined by his arrest. Blagojevich writes that he eventually appointed Roland Burris, in part because of Burris’ famously big ego. No one else but Burris would accept the appointment and fight to be seated under the circumstances, Blagojevich says.

The ex-governor’s 264-page book, published by Phoenix, comes out Sept. 8. It offers a benign picture of events surrounding Blagojevich’s arrest in a corruption scandal that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said would make Abraham Lincoln “roll over in his grave.”

The scandal cost Blagojevich his job when lawmakers impeached and threw him out of office in January. The once-rising political star is scheduled to stand trial next year. Blagojevich, who has pleaded not guilty, repeatedly asserts his innocence in the book.

He says his discussions about Obama’s possible successors amounted to “ordinary and routine politicking.”

But federal authorities cast it in a much different light, alleging Blagojevich was caught on FBI wiretaps discussing what he could get in exchange for the seat, from jobs to campaign contributions.

Blagojevich says that story is “upside down” and that he never asked for, or raised the subject of, campaign contributions in exchange for the Senate seat.

Others approached his administration with offers of campaign money, he says in “The Governor” without naming names. “If anyone should have been charged with a crime for this, it should have been them and not me,” he writes.

When Blagojevich talked to Emanuel after the election about the Senate pick, Obama’s right-hand man “did not lobby for anyone in particular,” according to the book.

Blagojevich says Emanuel was interested in his own career because he had to give up his congressional seat to work in Obama’s White House. Blagojevich writes that Emanuel dreamed of being speaker of the U.S. House and wanted to know if Blagojevich would work with him to name a successor to “hold” his seat until he wanted it back.

Blagojevich says he told Emanuel he didn’t think he could do that and the House vacancy would have to be filled by special election. But Emanuel reportedly told him “his lawyers thought there was a way.”

Blagojevich writes that he struggled with the idea of appointing Lisa Madigan to the Senate. The prospect “repulsed” him because of bad blood with her father.

But in the end, Blagojevich saw it as a way to entice Michael Madigan to support legislation he wanted, including a long-stalled statewide construction program that he said would create jobs and expand health care access for families.

Blagojevich says he told his chief of staff, John Harris, to begin working on a deal to appoint Lisa Madigan. The deal was halted when both Blagojevich and Harris were arrested the next day, Dec. 9, 2008.

“Mr. Fitzgerald didn’t stop a crime spree. He stopped me from doing a lot of good for a lot of people,” Blagojevich writes.

Harris has since agreed to testify against Blagojevich after pleading guilty and admitting that he repeatedly talked to the then-governor about ways he could profit from his authority to appoint Obama’s successor.

It’s unclear if the Madigans were aware of Blagojevich’s intentions. Lisa Madigan said last November she thought there was a “less than zero” chance Blagojevich would appoint her.

Madigan’s spokeswomen, Robyn Ziegler, said the attorney general hasn’t read the book and doesn’t intend to.

Madigan was widely seen as a potent challenge to Blagojevich if he ran for a third term in 2010. After he was arrested, Blagojevich writes, he was a “political leper.”

He decided to fill the Senate vacancy by appointing Burris, the former state comptroller and attorney general and the first black man to hold a major statewide office in Illinois. Blagojevich said Burris was qualified and had the self-confidence to accept the appointment despite the scandal.

“It was that self-esteem that I was counting on to be able to withstand the storm of protest that was inevitably going to come,” he said.

The time to fight is now.

  This past Saturday at the Orlando Tea Party the focus was activism and how to get involved.  We need more people out there to get active.  We have our hands full trying to fight the liberals that we cannot afford to spend much time trying to rally our own side.  I understand that most people want to get home from work, see their kids, and watch some brain candy on TV, but nothing is more important than fighting for our liberties.  Each and every one of us must look inside themselves and ask, “At what point to I stand up and fight Big Brother?”, is it when our currency is so deflated it costs $50,000 for a loaf of bread?  Is it when the executive branch executes a wiretap on YOUR phone without a warrent?  Do not wait until you have lost the liberty you hold so dear to start fighting.  Is not freedom the most sacred thing God has given man?  The time to fight is now! Before we lose any more of our precious liberties, not later or tomorrow or next week but NOW!  The war has already begun, the governments assault on our freedom is in full swing and sooner than later they will come after one of the liberties that you hold dear.  Get involved with the grassroots; go to a Tea Party or join a 9-12 meet-up group, anything to get on to the front lines, we need all of you.  If we have given up there is no hope left for the freedom of mankind, if we have given up then we are all slaves and Big Brother has won.